Vancouver mourns for workers killed on the job

VANCOUVER , BC: APRIL 27, 2012 -- Shelly Kuris and children, Liam, age 5, and Silver, age 8, attend Day of Mourning to remember the 142 British Columbia workers who lost their lives in 2011. Her husband Sam lost his life in a fork lift accident. At Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver on Friday, April 27, 2012.

Photograph by: Glenn Baglo
, PNG

VANCOUVER — Robert Luggi Jr., Carl Charlie., Glenn Roche., Alan Little... The names of four men killed on the job in sawmill explosions this year in Burns Lake and Prince George were among many mentioned at a sombre memorial service on the Burrard Inlet waterfront Friday morning.

A larger crowd than usual, about 400 people, gathered this year for Metro Vancouver's annual Day of Mourning for those killed or injured on the job — in accidents every speaker said were ultimately preventable.

The audience members' sympathy and, in some cases, anger had been heightened by the two high-profile sawmill disasters that this year killed the four men and injured dozens of others, mostly with severe burns.

"This year we saw industrial accidents on a scale not seen in this province since the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge collapsed in 1958," said David Anderson, president of WorkSafeBC. Nineteen tradesmen died in that long-ago accident in Burrard Inlet.

Since most Metro Vancouverites work in relatively safe offices, WorkSafeBC spokesman Scott McCloy said it's often hard for them to imagine how potentially dangerous many workplaces can be, especially those in the lumber, construction and mining industries.

But McCloy said the province's recent sawmill disasters, the latest of which occurred Monday in Prince George, have brought home the "high-risk" nature of many occupations, particularly those in which men are predominant.

WorkSafeBC released figures showing 92 per cent of the 142 workplace fatalities in B.C. in 2011 were men, a proportion that mirrors ongoing national trends.

Sixty-five men and six B.C. women died of "occupational diseases" last year. Most were victims of asbestos poisoning.

Thirty-eight men and four women were killed in "traumatic incidents," mostly in construction and primary resources. In addition, 27 men and two women died in work-related vehicle accidents.

Of the province's 104,000 on-the-job injuries in 2011, WorkplaceBC figures show men made up 64 per cent of cases, while the workforce is almost evenly balanced between the genders.

The most injuries, for both men and women, occurred in manufacturing, construction, the service sector and transportation.

Among the audience members gathering for the outdoor Day of Mourning ceremony in Vancouver were the wife and three children of Samuel Kuris Jr. of Maple Ridge, who was killed in January of last year in a forklift accident at a Safeway warehouse in Burnaby.

"We're doing as well as can be expected," said Shelley Kuris, 39, after she and her children joined a procession of mourners, many carrying single roses in honour of dead loved ones, at Jack Poole Plaza.

Along with several hundred people, Kuris walked by a permanent display of glass plaques showing the names and occupations of people killed on the job in B.C. in recent years.

Many dabbed their eyes as they looked at the long list of dead boilermakers, machine operators, carpenters, truck drivers, longshoremen and mechanics.

"I think more men are being killed because they're in the most physical and dangerous jobs," said Kuris. "I could see things changing as more women get into the trades."

B.C. Minister of Labour Margaret MacDiarmid said more men die on the job in B.C. because of the nature of the work they choose, whether in the forest industry or heavy construction.

While MacDiarmid was pleased the rate of workplace injuries is steadily declining in B.C., she said investigators "absolutely must" discover exactly why two large sawmills have exploded in B.C. within four months.

"It's been said many times today," said MacDiarmid. "Tragedies like these are preventable."

As part of Friday's official mourning ceremony, former Vancouver Island sawmill worker Michael Lovett described the late-night accident that cost him one of his legs at age 18.

"I can't describe the terror I felt as I was being pulled along the conveyor toward my death." After Lovett prayed for help, he said the conveyor was stopped by one of his steel-toed boots. Still, one leg was destroyed.

Rose Lachnit described the "completely stupid and unnecessary" death seven years ago of her only son in a Surrey condominium construction project.

While on the job, 19-year-old Nicholas Lachnit fell three floors and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. The building contractor, who was later handed a small fine, hadn't erected proper safety rails.

"My biggest fear," said Lachnit, "is my son died in vain."

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair, a representative of the Canadian Labour Congress that began Canada's Day of Mourning in 1984, called for more prosecutors to follow through when police recommend charges against employers who put workers in danger.

After describing the funeral of Robert Luggi Jr. of Burns Lake, and modern technical achievements that should make workplace deaths a thing of the past, Sinclair said:

"This week the impossible happened again. Another mill blew up. And despite all our knowledge, we still don't know why it happened."

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VANCOUVER , BC: APRIL 27, 2012 -- Shelly Kuris and children, Liam, age 5, and Silver, age 8, attend Day of Mourning to remember the 142 British Columbia workers who lost their lives in 2011. Her husband Sam lost his life in a fork lift accident. At Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver on Friday, April 27, 2012.

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